Starfield design director says players trust Bethesda after rough Fallout 76 launch

An astronaut walks towards a glowing temple in Starfield
(Image credit: Microsoft)

Starfield's design director has said Bethesda regained the trust of players after fixing Fallout 76 following its rough launch.

Shortly after the release of Starfield's early access, Emil Pagliarulo took to Twitter to share his thoughts on the seven-year-long development of the sci-fi RPG, saying that he thinks that the player trust gained after fixing Fallout 76 carried over to Starfield and made the team "want to work ever harder" (via GamesRadar).

"Our goal from the very beginning was to create a brand new universe for our players (old and new!) to get lost in," Pagliarulo said. "To push ourselves to provide you with as much content, and hopefully joy, as we were humanly capable of. Did we pull it off? Well, we sure as hell tried."

Fallout 76 launched in 2018 in a pretty rough shape and it was no secret it wasn't received well by reviewers or the Bethesda community as a whole. It took a few years for the game to reach an optimal state of play as the studio continued to release content in the form of patches and paid DLC. 

"When [Fallout] 76 launched rough, we asked for your patience," Pagliarulo continued. "We had some lessons to learn. And you supported us as we supported that game, and made it the experience you wanted and deserved. That trust clearly carried over into Starfield, and made us want to work ever harder."

Starfield launched in early access on September 1 for those who preordered the Premium Edition or Constellation Edition and so far, it's being received well with the Steam top sellers list showing the game at number one at the time of writing. 

The game will be officially released on September 6 for Xbox Series X|S and PC. We rated the game a 4 out of 5 stars in our review, saying, "Starfield is a technically solid systems-heavy role-playing game that works well with a surprising degree of polish compared to previous Bethesda RPGs. Despite this, Starfield has no sense of character and the story lacks impact."

For more, here's our guide to the best Xbox Series X games you can play right now, as well as the best PC games of 2023